Red As Candy
by Zade-Kassel
Summary: AU. In a non-sburb reality, just before the trolls' looming conscription date, Karkat is kidnapped by the mysterious "uu" and placed in a series of deadly games. He has to fight his way out to stay alive.
1. Part I

((****AN: **Sorry that doesn't let me put different colors for this beginning chatlog. It'll make it harder to read and keep track of who's who.))

**PART I.**

undyingUmbrage [uu] began jeering carcinoGeneticist [CG]

uu: HEH.

CG: WHAT?

uu: LOOK AT THIS. BIG-HEADED, POMPOuS TROLL WHO THINKS HE'S LEADER AND COMMANDER OF EVERYTHING. BuT YOu'RE NOT.

CG: WHO IS THIS?

uu: I AM GOING TO BRING YOu DOWN. YOu'RE GOING TO WRITHE IN MY HANDS LIKE THE SLIME THAT YOu ARE. AND I WILL DEVOuR YOu.

CG: ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW? LOOK, IF YOU KNOW ME YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT I'M THE MASTER OF THE ARTFORM CALLED TROLLING. I RUN THIS TIGHT SHIP OF JEERING BANTER AND PRANKING WORDS LIKE A SORDID PIRATE ON HIS BIG NIGHT OUT ON THE HIGH SEAS. I DEVELOPED AND PERFECTED THE ACTIONS THAT LED TO THE TERM. I CAN'T BE TROLLED. IT'S IMPOSSIBLE.

uu: YOu ASSuME THAT TROLLING IS THE THING THAT IS HAPPENING HERE. I ASSuRE YOu THAT THIS IS MuCH MORE OF A THING THAN TROLLING. IT'S MuCH MORE INTENSE. AND MuCH MORE PAINFuL... IN THE END. HEH.

CG: THE ONLY THING PAINFUL RIGHT NOW IS YOUR INABILITY TO SPEAK WITH SENSE-MAKING "U"S THAT DON'T MAKE ME WANT TO RIP MY EYES OUT.

uu: OH. I SEE YOu'RE TRYING TO BE THE FuNNY GuY. TOO BAD IT'S NOT WORKING BECAuSE YOu'RE NOT WITTY OR FuNNY AT ALL.

CG: LOOK, TELL THE PERSON WHO PUT YOU UP TO THIS THAT HA HA THIS WAS A FUNNY JOKE. THOUGH ACTUALLY IT'S NOT REALLY THAT FUNNY OR VERY INTERESTING OR CREATIVE EITHER AND NOW IT'S OVER. BUT I HAVE THINGS TO DO AND PEOPLE TO SEE. I'M RUNNING A REALLY TIGHT SCHEDULE RIGHT NOW. TIGHTER THAN THE MOTHERFUCKING GRAND HIGHBLOOD TRYING TO SQUEEZE HIMSELF INTO LEIJON'S CLOTHES. SO WE'RE GONNA HAVE TO CUT THIS SHORT.

uu: YOu CANNOT CuT SHORT THE WORDS OF LIFE. THE TRuTH. AND THE TRuTH IS. I'M GOING TO BREAK YOu. YOu WILL BE CRuSHED BENEATH MY HANDS LIKE A SQuIRMING LITTLE INSECT. ALL DELICATE AND FEEBLE AND EASILY SMuSHED. THEN I WILL LAuGH. BECAuSE IT WILL BE FuNNY. HA HA. HA HA HA.

uu: HELLO?

uu: ARE YOu THERE?

uu: OH I SEE. YOu GOT SCARED AND RAN AWAY ALREADY.

carcinoGeneticist [CG] went offline

uu: uGH.

uu: THIS WILL BE CONTINuED.

undyingUmbrage [uu] ceased jeering carcinoGeneticist [CG]

undyingUmbrage [uu] began jeering carcinoGeneticist [CG]

uu: SO YOu HAVE RETuRNED.

CG: YOU AGAIN?

uu: DO NOT SPEAK IN THAT TONE WITH ME. NOW THAT YOu HAVE RETuRNED FROM YOuR FRIENDLY EXPEDITION WITH YOuR "PALS" WE CAN TALK ONCE MORE.

CG: YOU WANT TO CONTINUE WITH YOUR ABYSMAL MYRIAD OF INSULTS AND DEGRADATIONS THAT EVEN THE FRESHEST OF WIGGLERS WOULD WINCE AT?

uu: YOu ARE BLIND TO THE ACTuAL REALITY OF THE SITuATION. AND BY THE TIME YOu FIGuRE IT OuT IT WILL BE TOO LATE.

CG: NOT INTERESTED, ASSHOLE. I CURRENTLY HAVE MORE TO WORRY ABOUT THAN AN ASH-SKINNED IDIOT WHO WANTS TO SERENADE ME WITH FLOWERY BLACK CONDEMNATION AND DETEST. IF YOU HAVE NOTHING TO SAY TO ME, THEN FUCK OFF.

uu: YOu CAN NOT TELL ME TO FuCK OFF. I WILL NOT FuCK OFF ANYWHERE. I WILL KINDLY STAY HERE AND REMAIN uN-FuCKED OFF uNTIL THE NOTION OF FuCKING OFF IS FIRMLY ABOLISHED.

carcinoGeneticist [CG] blocked undyingUmbrage [uu]

uu: NO MATTER HOW HARD YOu TRY MY MESSAGES ARE STILL GOING TO GO THROuGH.

carcinoGeneticist [CG] blocked undyingUmbrage [uu] again

uu: I AM uNBLOCKABLE, YOu ANNOYING PIECE OF SHIT.

CG: DAMN.

uu: DO YOu HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM?

CG: NO. BECAUSE YOU BLATANTLY REFUSED TO TELL ME AND GUESS WHAT? I BLATANTLY REFUSE TO CARE.

uu: I WILL TELL YOu.

CG: I DON'T CARE.

uu: WELL I WILL TELL YOu ANYWAY.

uu: I.

uu: AM.

uu: ...

CG: ARE YOU SERIOUSLY GOING TO TRY AND MAKE ME SIT HERE ALL DAY AND WAIT FOR THIS MAGNIFICENT REVEAL? OR MAYBE GET ON MY WORTHLESS BONY LEG-JOINTS AND BEG FOR YOUR WISE WORDS OF KNOWLEDGE TO BE REVEALED TO ME?

uu: ...

uu: I.

uu: AM.

uu: ...

CG: WHY AM I EVEN SPEAKING TO SUCH AN IDIOT? I COULD BE DOING A MILLION OTHER MORE IMPORTANT THINGS RIGHT NOW.

CG: LIKE SLEEPING. OR TALKING TO PEOPLE WHO I ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT.

CG: OR THAT FAMED "LEADER SHIT" WHICH I ACTUALLY DO HAVE AND WHICH I ACTUALLY COULD BE DOING.

CG: BUT NO. INSTEAD I'M STUCK HERE TALKING TO YOU. LIKE THE PANLESS IDIOT I AM. OR RATHER THAT I'VE DECIDED TO BE.

CG: THIS IS STUPID.

uu: YOuR WORST NIGHTMARE.

CG: OH MY GOD.

uu: DOES THAT MAKE YOu QuAKE IN YOuR BONES?

CG: CAN I JUST BANG MY CRANIAL HEADPLATE AGAINST THE WALL HERE?

uu: YOu CRAVE FOR THE DAY WHEN YOu'RE FREE OF ME.

uu: YOu WISH TO CuRL uP INTO A PATHETIC LITTLE BALL uNTIL NIGHTBREAK JuST THINKING OF WAYS TO GET ME OuT OF YOuR HEAD.

CG: I'M LEAVING.

uu: NO. YOu MAY THINK THAT YOuR BuSINESS IS IMPORTANT. BuT I ASSuRE YOu IT IS NOT. I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN IN THE FuTuRE AND WHAT YOu'RE PREPARING FOR WILL NOT TAKE PLACE. SOMETHING VERY DIFFERENT WILL.

CG: I'M NOT THE GULLIBLE TWIT WHO'S GONNA BELIEVE THAT. EVERYONE KNOWS FUTURE-TELLING ISN'T REAL. JUST LIKE MAGIC.

uu: I NEVER SAID I WAS A FUTURE-TELLER. OR FORTUNE-TELLER. WHATEVER THE PROPER TERM IS. I KNOW BECAuSE. I AM PLANNING IT. IT WILL TAKE PLACE EXACTLY AS I HAVE PLANNED. EXACTLY WHEN I HAVE PLANNED. AND YOuR PLANS WILL BE MOOT. YOu WILL SEE.

uu: HOW EXACTLY DO YOu THINK I KNEW ABOuT YOuR EXPEDITION TO SEE YOuR "FRIENDS"? THAT WAS NOT SOMETHING YOu MENTIONED. OR SOMETHING I SAW BECAuSE OF "MAGIC". A THING WHICH TOTALLY DOESN'T EXIST.

CG: I'M LEAVING NOW.

CG: FOR REAL THIS TIME.

CG: BASTARD.

carcinoGeneticist [CG] went offline

uu: THERE WILL BE A TIME WHEN YOu WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RuN AWAY FROM ME, BOY. THAT TIME WILL COME SOON.

uu: VERY SOON.

uu: HA.

uu: HA HA HA.

uu: HA HA HA HA.

undyingUmbrage [uu] ceased jeering carcinoGeneticist [CG]

undyingUmbrage [uu] began jeering carcinoGeneticist [CG]

carcinoGeneticist [CG] blocked undyingUmbrage [uu]

undyingUmbrage [uu] unblocked undyingUmbrage [uu]

carcinoGeneticist [CG] RE-blocked undyingUmbrage [uu]

uu: HEY.

uu: YOu.

uu: I KNOW YOu'RE GETTING THIS.

uu: JuST A WARNING.

uu: BE.

uu: READY.

undyingUmbrage [uu] ceased jeering carcinoGeneticist [CG]

xXxXxXxXxXx

The door squeaked as Karkat pushed it open. He really had to fix that thing. Maybe one day when he wasn't working on his highly important mountain of projects that had piled up on his desk (mainly broken computers and a few codes he wanted to finish writing) he would. Not that he was any good at any of it. But he wasn't going to just give them to Sollux in defeat like a spineless grub and get teased mercilessly for it. Fuck that. These things were his projects and they would be completed by him.

The door wasn't really a big deal; he could technically just abandon it since there wouldn't be any reason to fix it pretty soon. The Conscription was coming up, ready to round up all the adult trolls and siphon them away into that huge battleship in outerspace, patrolling Alternia. They'd all have to leave and their hives would be destroyed right along with it, the spots they once stood on vacant until some other wretched tot of a grub pointed to the construction drolls and ordered their own hive to be built there. But it would feel kind of wrong to just NOT do it. It was like payment for all the years he'd lived there. A final gift before departure.

Assuming he didn't just get culled on the onset, of course. But no. He wasn't even gonna think about that very probable shitty alternative.

Karkat turned to face the friend who'd walked him home, Terezi. Her nostrils were flaring in a way that suggested she was sniffing his interior. She was probably sniffing him too and could catch a whiff of all the worries that had been pressing on him lately. He shoved his thoughts away before she got a little too nosy and turned it into an uncomfortable conversation.

"Will you be fine walking home?" He asked, looking her over. They were almost adults. And Terezi had grown into a fine one. Sharp and wise, with a smile like daggers and the cane she wielded like a whip. Not to mention her body, curvy as hell. She would make a very good Legislacerator one day. Not because of the body but because of the other, intellectual, stuff. He shoved his idiot train of thought into a dark corner where it rightfully belonged.

Terezi grinned at his question and swung her cane around, spearing its sharp end in the dirt at his foot. She leaned forward. "Is this what I think it is? Mr. Vantas is worrying about me?" Her grin widened. Karkat scowled. She continued, "I'll be fine. Some girls can take care of themselves, even if they're blind."

"Who was worrying? I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't get lost and fall into a ditch on your way there. No dragons to pick you up."

Terezi's lips pursed. Of all the kids, her lusus was the only one that never actually awoke in all the years she'd had it. It communicated to her in dreams, apparently, and through whatever special language of the blind prophets she claimed to know. But it was never there to physically fight for her or fend off threats… Karkat really didn't know how she'd survived when she was younger.

"Stop wondering about me and take care of yourself first. You've been working pretty hard lately, Karkat. I don't want to have to pick both you and Sollux up before we even get drafted. You know what happens if you look too weak."

Automatic culling. For any ill, any too mentally disturbed, past Vriska's murderous caliber—the kind that made you unable to function in daily life or effective in killing battles—and any that looked like they'd kick the bucket if someone shouted at them too loudly. Tavros had something to worry about there. But maybe he'd call on his inner Rufio and survive the initial inspection.

"I know my limits," Karkat replied back.

Terezi's finger brushed over his jaw for a brief moment. The sun was coming up on the horizon. They had to retreat to dreamland soon. "See you tomorrow."

"Don't wander off and get lost."

She snorted and whacked him with her cane.

"OW. Was that really necessary? You could hurt someone with that. I could be down for days and then you'd have to sit around and try and choose a new leader, which, good luck with that. Between the power-hungry genocidal sea trolls, slightly off-the-rocker homicidal freaks, and pathetically average bunch of oats that are off in a corner of their brains fantasizing on their own interests and adventures you'd be pretty hard pressed to find someone even moderately—are you seriously laughing?"

Terezi finished her snickering, giving him a conciliatory lick on the cheek. He scowled but quieted as she waved. Then she hurried away into the pre-dawn air, trying to make it back to her hive before daylight. Karkat went inside and shut the door.

xXxXxXxXxXx

He made use of the nutritional block, whistling a short, cheery tune that he'd red-facedly deny he even knew if anyone approached him about it, and prepped himself a late snack of a sandwich. He crunched into it, juice spilling down his face. Licking it off, he retreated upstairs.

As he put a foot on the stairs, he paused. Something he hadn't noticed before, but that should have sent off warning bells as soon as he stepped inside the door. Even if it was this close to daytime it shouldn't be this… silent. Usually his Lusus came bounding up to meet him when he got in, even if the crab had been in a deepest sleep before. And he'd haunt him around the nutritional block while he fixed his food, making sure that Karkat wasn't skimping on daily substance values.

But this… this wasn't right.

Just as he turned to go back, a shadow caught his eye. It came from upstairs, his respite block.

He slowly turned. No movement. But he'd still seen something. His sickles came out on reflex, dropping from his sylladex with a thought, and he crept up the stairs silently. He came to the doorway of his room, pressing himself against it, listening. Nothing. He peeked inside. It was dark. Which was sort of expected. No movement was anywhere. And nothing looked out of place… except… As his eyes quickly scanned over his room, he saw a big dark shape hanging from the ceiling. Limp.

His Lusus!

Karkat ran inside. The crab had been tied up from his head to bottom feet and knocked unconscious. Karkat examined the knots in quick succession, trying to figure out the best way to free him. He figured his Lusus probably wouldn't blame him if he cut him a bit in the process of freeing him, and then they could search for the perpetrator later. He raised his sickle.

The unconscious body turned slightly with a breeze, a note in the middle of the web of ropes saying: "ARE YOu READY?"

And before that could really penetrate his brain, a sack was dropped over his head and the sickle was knocked out of his grip. He struggled, waving wildly with the other one, trying to attack a piece of the person behind him as well as free himself. But he could already feel the chemical taking hold as it entered his nostrils. Fuck. He held his breath, but it'd already melted into his brain, made him see dancing colors, and a thought flashed on exactly how much he had to get done and that he didn't have any time for this, as he went limp.

Everything blacked out.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Karkat came to slowly. Vaguely the room filled in, a hazy outline of bare steel walls, a table stretched out on the other side, a chair in the corner of the room. He couldn't turn around, he noticed. But his brain was still too fuzzy to really make out what that meant.

Footsteps approached. A door closed. A shadow fell over Karkat and then circled around until it was in front of him. And someone in a grinning mask, double-sided, though Karkat couldn't see the other side yet, peered down on him.

"Hello, Karkat. Do you want to play a game?"

xXxXxXxXxXx

Karkat's vision shifted as it tried to piece together bits of information in its still fragmented state. The masked man swam in front of him as images of his tied up Lusus and other images—that note, the weird trolling conversations—rose in his mind. And then a final perception hit him as his brain finally snapped back into effect. He was bound.

From head to toe, caught in some sort of contraption of a chair that tied his hands behind his back and bolted his legs to the floor. He couldn't even move his neck. There was some sort of a guard or collar around it, holding it entirely still. And a length of steel extended all the way down from the nape of his neck to the bottom of his tailbone. He bared his teeth at his captor in irritation.

The grinning mask looked at him appraisingly. It was painted grey, the same grey as their skin color, with coal-black orbs for eye-sockets and bright red spirals on the cheeks. And that black grin stared at him throughout.

"What the hell is this?" Karkat spit out. Glad to know he could talk, even if he couldn't move yet.

"You're just as annoying in person."

"Who in Alternia's name are you?"

"Sadly we haven't been as acquainted as I've wanted to be. But that will be rectified. In the game that we shall play very soon." The grinning mask came closer. A hand reached out, as a finger slowly stroked the side of Karkat's face. He tensed. If he could move, he'd probably try to bite it off, but he was totally paralyzed. The finger ran to his jaw and flipped over, scraping a sharp nail against him. Shit. He couldn't move away, so he squeezed his eyes shut, silently hoping that it wouldn't cut it wouldn't cut it wouldn't cut… The last thing he needed was this bastard knowing his blood color.

A laugh as the finger was pulled away. Karkat opened his eyes again. "Not so bad and frightening without your shield of capital letters are you? I at least expected some shouting. I'm kind of disappointed at the real thing."

He couldn't feel any sticky wetness or any stinging pain, so he must not have been cut. Relief flooded into his brain. Then he realized what his captor had just said. Conversations flashed into his mind. Grey trollian text, just like his, almost identical except for those obnoxious u's. That guy.

"Ding. Ding. You've finally realized who I am. You're much slower than I thought too."

"Where am I?"

"Wrong question." The hand backhanded him, banging the back of his head against the metal of the chair and echoing down to his spine. That fucking hurt.

"Who the fuck are you, you ignorant lump of musclebeast shit?"

Another backslap, harder this time. Looked like the more he kept asking the "wrong" questions the more punishment he'd get.

"Why am I here?"

The hand came up. Karkat braced himself for the blow, but it never came. Instead a finger slowly descended and tapped his nose with a long fingernail.

"Finally, the right question." A smile sounded from the guy's voice, although his lips, like the rest of his face, were hidden beneath the ever-grinning mask.

"So what's the answer? All your "My Little Troll" dolls got thrown away so you came to play with me? Couldn't find anyone else willing to stand you?"

"It's because you're a vile, disgusting thing that deserves to be exterminated. And I'm the benefactor who will carry that out. Unless you somehow, creatively manage to actually win. So far you're proving to grow dumber and dumber by the second."

"Fuck you. I'm not some huge hairy primate dancing on strings."

"No. You're a repulsive troll who's blinded to his own stench and deserves to sit and rot in it. You will dance to my strings because they are the only strings that you will be allowed to hang on in a few moments, and you will enjoy it. You'll be grateful to me and my generosity, actually. That I made such allotments instead of just dropping you in a kennel without any form of success."

"Like anyone would be grateful to a lowlife chump like you. I could count on my hands a million wrigglers with more creativity and skill and the ability to actually carve insults that make someone quake with fear rather than the tepid little snarks that you do. I could take you to a sweeps-long class on arrogant-bastard-ship and you wouldn't learn any of it. And with that mask on your face? What are you, a primadonna scared to let her audience see her ugly beauty marks? Do you have a scar from your Lusus smacking you across the face for being so inadequate that he couldn't even stand you? And speaking of Lususes, you dirtbag, you're going to pay for what you did to mine. I'm going to be the one who makes you quake in the end and you're going to be the little bug that got squashed under me. No one fucks with my Lusus and gets away with it."

"Big words for a tiny little turd tied to a metal chair. I'll be curious to hear what you say when you—sorry did I say when, I meant if. Because you're never coming out like the fool you are and you will collapse and rot in my game. With your huge, stupid looking mouth. And your crazy, angry gestures flopping around like you're the Empress herself. The first game begins now."

Karkat felt his chair shift. It flipped over on itself, turning upside down. He found himself going backwards, staring at the ceiling in a few short moments, stark white and plain, and his eyes scraped over the wall that had been to the back of him, as the chair took him through the tile that had been the floor, flipping him onto the other side.

He emerged hanging upside down, bolted to the chair on the ceiling of a very large cage. A key dangled in front of him, about three feet away on a string. He could reach it if he could manage to stretch, maybe even with his teeth if not with a hand. But of course, he couldn't move at all. He stared at the key, wondering what exactly it went to, a door, the locks that were holding him down? Maybe it could free him. 'Course it would help if he could move in the first place. Dammit. So there came the question of… how exactly to work himself out of this chair.

A shuffle made him aware of a presence, and then the smell finally rose up to his upside down nose, as he took in the foul scent of unwashed beast.

His eyes went from the key to further down, beneath him. On the floor of the cage, about sixty feet below, a group of furry beasts shuffled around. Huge. Four of them. Trucklebeasts. Four-legged creatures with arms the size of a miniature-boulder and just as strong, hooves on their bottom feet, and long, black snouts. These things were carnivorous, voracious, and pretty intelligent too. How uu had managed to capture them was beyond Karkat's understanding, but that wasn't really relevant now. Those snouts had jutted into the air as the beasts now paused, picking up in his scent. Shit.

They looked up and their eyes locked on to him. Karkat started to struggle, as if he could break out of his chair any easier than when he'd tried the first several times. With a howl, the biggest one—the leader, probably—leapt up and crashed onto the side of the cage, shaking the entire thing. It looked up to Karkat and bared its teeth, growling, then jumped onto the next rung and started to climb. The others followed behind.

He cursed, wanting to kick his past self, present self, and all selves in-between. So much for completing those projects and seeing Terezi and his friends again. So much for getting out of here. He was totally dead meat. Why the fuck didn't he just read the signs? Why did he answer all those conversations? Why didn't he realize something was off right when he went in his hive?

He bared his teeth and flexed his fingers, emitting a long growl of his own. Even if he was practically paralyzed, he'd get in a little bit of fight of his own before his head got taken off.


	2. Part II

**PART II.**

The snarls grew louder as the beasts thumped their way up the cage walls, eyes filled with hunger and drool running down their mouths. Karkat tried not to panic, but how the fuck could he not panic when there were four huge things coming after him and he was bound to a chair? Okay he was kind of panicking.

The leader reached him first, bounding from the edge of the wall in a powerful leap, flinging itself directly at his suspended chair. Its teeth grazed the edge of his shirt and he felt its hot breath as it fell past him. It caught onto the bottom (or top?) of his upside-down chair, flipping around to leap back up and attack his mid-section. This time it struck, and his raised claws were of no effect, barely able to latch onto any part of its flesh as its teeth grazed into his skin with a sear of pain.

"AGHHHHHH," Karkat yelled, since there was no point in being stoic about it.

The creature fell down again, clutching the head of his chair, as the second beast attacked. It lunged for his bound legs, teeth digging into one leg. The bite dug deep. Karkat sucked in a breath as the first one jumped up again, lunging for his mid-section. Its teeth still only grazed him, but they snagged onto the leather that ensnared his chest and right wrist, snapping them both as it clutched the rungs on the ceiling, regaining a grip. Karkat wiggled, yanking his right hand free and tried to undo the bonds holding his left one. It wouldn't budge. A third beast attacked his legs. He scratched it with his free claws and it bounced back as the fourth one leapt onto his chair from behind.

His fist hammered the left cuff, beating a tiny dent in it. He swiped as another lunge was taken at his head and felt hot breath and drool as the beast to the back of him tore at his hair. A beast came for his legs again and he caught it in a headlock, squeezing his thighs together. He punched it. The creature howled and leapt back to hang on the rungs above him. He yanked his left arm free, nearly dislocating his carpal joint, just in time to catch an attack from the side, grabbing the creature's head in his hands and twisting. He wasn't as strong as Equius or anything, but it must have done the trick, because the creature went falling. And Karkat caught a glimmer as the key snapped on its string, falling along with the body. Crap.

An echoed crash as the beast landed on the distant floor below.

A bite landed on his shoulder, eliciting another yowl of pain from him. He scratched and dug his claws into the beast, trying to kick another creature away from his legs. A toss of that beast's arm and his chair shook, but the lower ankle cuff holding his left ankle was loosened. He slipped his foot out, kicking off a bulky shoe in the process. It dropped past his head, clonking the beast behind him on the way down.

No time to mourn his sneaker though, since two beasts were now lunging at his legs and the other beast had decided to try his other shoulder as a treat. He kicked the two above him and tried to swipe the beast beside him with his sharp nails. He ended up stabbing the creature in the eye. Even better.

A HOWL and the beast retreated, crawling behind the chair again.

One of the other beasts came for his midriff. He kneed it mid-leap and kicked it away from him. It lost leverage, scrabbling on the surface of his chair, and slipped off, falling to join its dead companion at the bottom of the cage. Karkat growled at the one hanging on the ceiling before him.

The second beast recovered, swiping at him from behind. He had to get out of these bonds and gain some leverage. Even if two of them were down, he was still injured and half-bound. This didn't look too good of a situation.

He kicked his last ankle bond. It hurt like hell—this was the leg that had been bitten—but soon he had his leg freed, and just in time as the last beast on the ceiling lunged. He kicked it in a hard double kick, rebounding it against the metal. It came back again, growling and swiping at him, catching a hold of the skin on his calf. He swiped the nails on his feet against it, cutting its face. It dug its nails into his hip, hanging on to the ceiling as it pulled itself closer to his face. Its drool dripped down, running over his jaw, his nose, and over his forehead. Yuck.

Behind him the other beast was starting to move. He thought of the only thing he could think of. He waved his hand in front of the face of the beast behind him. It snapped and he yanked his hand out the way as its face crashed into his chair, bucking it forward. The other beast almost fell off. He tried it again, shoving his hand behind his neck like some sort of red flag and this creature was the poor starved terra bull that would be fixated on it. He yanked it away as the creature snapped again, missing his hand, but biting into some of the metal around the back of his neck brace-collar that held him still. He'd clutched the other beast around the waist with his knees, which helped him avoid having his head bitten off just yet, even if he still had to deal with the beast's putrid breath and the claws it'd satisfied itself with digging into his side, trying to rip his insides out. He shifted to avoid that possibility a little longer and waved his hand again.

The teeth almost clamped over his fingers this time, but they got hold of the metal, shredding more of it. He bucked his neck, trying to see if he could break free. Almost. He snapped back in place as the beast in front of him snapped its own neck in, trying to get a hold on him.

One more wave of his hand and the neck brace totally snapped, tearing in half in the beast's jaws. His victory was cut short as he felt himself falling, sliding on the metal of the chair, with the first beast on top of him. He tried to grasp on to something, anything, bucking the trucklebeast off in the process, and gripped onto the head of the chair as his body flipped over on itself, now hanging right-side up over that 60 foot drop. A scrape and claw down his leg as the first trucklebeast slipped off and downward, failing to get a grip on him or anything else as it fell to the floor. Then snapping jaws were in his face and he dropped an arm to hang on to the other side, avoiding a swipe of huge claws.

He pulled himself up, climbing up the chair and onto the metal grid of the ceiling. The last beast came bounding after him, jumping onto the metal ceiling behind him. A creak as the floor/ceiling the chair had been situated on finally gave out, and it went crashing to the bottom of the cage with a loud thump. Karkat barely had time to notice, as he was already scrabbling along the top to get away from the beast clambering after him with the skills of the fucking hairy primate he'd just sworn he wasn't. Karkat wished he had those skills right about now.

He half-jumped, half-fell onto the side of the cage, barely catching the metal grid of the rungs, and scurried down, half-sliding, half-jumping and catching himself. The creature bounded after him. It caught up about half-way, slashing and growling and snapping. It whacked him against the metal with a bulky arm, tearing onto his shoulder again, biting deeper. He elbowed it off.

He scrabbled down further and clawed it when it came close again, then it grabbed his arm and yanked him towards it. He bit it right on its jaw. It howled, slamming him against the metal. He re-clutched a rung for grip and kneed the beast. OW HOLY FUCKING KRINGLES THAT WAS THE LEG THAT HAD GOTTEN MAULED WORSE THAN POUNCE-DE-LEON'S CHEW TOYS RED BLOODY PAIN. And then he kicked it with his good leg.

It fell back, losing its balance and reached for him. He dodged its grasp, giving it a final kick to the face. It flopped down to the ground, landing with a heavy oof that wasn't as conclusive as the other ones—he could still see it spasming so it wasn't totally dead—but it wasn't exactly conscious anymore either.

He climbed down at a slower pace the rest of the way, trying to keep weight off the leg that was now seriously killing him, and when he jumped down to the ground he put a hand on his open shoulder, wincing. His other wounds weren't that bad, or at least they weren't screaming in pain just yet. And he was bloody all over. Maybe he could clean up before he left. Somehow. But all the clothes he had on were covered in his candy-red blood too, and there's no guarantee that his captor hadn't been watching the entire thing. He had mentioned it was a "game" after all. Why wouldn't the fucker want to enjoy the activities? So his blood secret was already ruined. But whatever, if the guy wanted to cull him over it, he'd already tried. He couldn't do much worse than this.

Karkat limped his way over to the center of the room, carefully avoiding the spasming trucklebeast, just in case it decided to spontaneously recover and use him as its pain-relief. He searched on the ground. There, with the gold string. He bent down, picking up the key, then he examined it. It definitely looked too big to be a key for the locks he'd been cuffed into. Not that he'd gotten much of a chance to look at the locks. They'd been mauled by four beasts and the chair's carcass was on the other side of the room. But it was obviously a key to something else.

Karkat looked around, examining the cage. He saw it when he looked back up. The faintest outline of a trap door. Of course. He needed to climb the cage again to get to it. Of course, if the key hadn't dropped down to the ground in the first place he probably would have been in a good position to, assuming that he didn't fall on his head first.

Grunting from the complaint in his leg, he made his way back to the cage wall to climb back up. He eventually made it to the top again and unlocked the door with the key that did actually fit—if it'd been a fake or he'd needed another he probably would have strangled someone. Preferably that uu character. And if not then probably himself because this shit was absolutely crazy right on past the stuff that got you locked up in your hive all day and night and on to the sort that planned out total massacres of the Empress and great Gl'bgolyb that ended with your head on a fork and your body used as a vessel of consignment. He pulled himself up and out of the trap door, pretty much the last of his strength right now, and flopped down on the tile he emerged onto, panting and winded.

xXxXxXxXxXx

A soft shifting sound made him alert again, and he rose halfway before ropes were wrapped around his arms, tightening. He struggled for a few seconds, though he couldn't really do anything since half of his body had decided to give out on him, twitching in a way that suggested his muscles were used up, as he was yanked upright and pulled to a nearby table. He could see a pulley on the ceiling as he was dragged backwards, and the ropes lifted him up and on to the table, two more ropes coming up to bind his ankles.

Footsteps approached. Shortly he found himself once more looking on the form of his masked captor. This time the guy's mask had been flipped around to the other side. An angry, frightening looking face with a huge frown, but otherwise it was the same as the previous one. Karkat glared at it.

"You survived."

"What kind of dimwit psychotic game was that? Any other nooksniffer would probably have invited someone to a high stakes game of cards or some dangerous LARPing, but you decide to pull something like that? Why? Who are you? Why are you doing this? Why do you hate me so much?"

"Whoa now. Hate is a rather strong word. I prefer the term… 'vehemently detest'."

"That still answered jack shit of my other questions."

"There are different types of games for each different type of person, you halfwit. And each particular situation. This game in particular is suited towards you. Thus every instance and every little rule and diversion will be entirely catered to you and your own… personal deficiencies."

"I've done absolutely nothing wrong. Not anything despicable. Like this."

"You exist. That's despicable enough. With your abominable blood color and your big, angry words, and your incessant failing ability to lead. You can't even command your team properly; they all disobey you and fall apart anyway. And then you pretend to have some modicum of confidence at all. You're the despicable, pathetic one here, Karkat."

Karkat fell silent. He couldn't really deny it. uu had practically pinpointed to everything he both tried not to acknowledge about himself and that he hated to his deepest core. Everything he was proud in about himself was absolutely shitty to the utmost degree. And he knew about his blood color already? Fuck. So maybe that was why he was here.

"Heh. You know. I did actually used to have very strong feelings of black distaste for one person in my company. A long time ago."

Karkat glanced back at him, wholly uninterested and irritated and embarrassed all at once.

"Her name was… I can say it now, since before, we were forbidden to speak one another's names, but now that she's dead I'm free to all I wish. Her name was Calliope. My sister. My sweet, loveable, people-intrigued sister. And I hated her."

uu described how Calliope would rile him and how he'd come to find evidence of her presence everywhere, even when he took pains not to. Karkat found himself imagining some dainty troll girl, maybe a flower in her hair or something, totally oblivious to the smoldering dark emotions of the brother in the next room or hive or wherever for her. Their physical location wasn't so clear. It didn't seem like either of them had a Lusus; maybe it died long ago or had taken off like Gamzee's? And their relation to one another wasn't exactly clear either. uu described himself as her brother, which Karkat gathered meant something like they'd grown up together like Equius and Nepeta, but not as moirails, more as trolls who existed wholly to annoy each other? He wasn't sure.

"And then, when I'd finally gotten the point across to her. When I could almost feel the fear in her tiny body. Smell it in the air. Evidence the failures she came to have more and more as our personal game of survival endured… I ensnared her in a small trap and cornered her. And then I exacted judgment, destroying her body, wringing free her cling to life, of sorts."

Karkat imagined a quivering little troll in the corner of some respite block, a tall shadowing advancing, wearing this creepy mask. As she clawed and bit and struggled, growling and nipping, trying to escape, she was still no match. He felt the life go out of her eyes, bright lime green from what uu described (maybe she was the last of the lime bloods or something? Karkat didn't even think there were any still left), as she stared up at her brother in betrayal and disbelief. And maybe a bit of relief too. Karkat could imagine she'd be sort of glad to get out of this guy's presence. But how it happened… He mentally shuddered.

A finger pressed against his jaw, sliding upwards to stroke his lip. Its thumb pressed against it, pushing inside to run against his teeth. He bared them.

"Would you like to die like her? Your blood spilling over my hands, abominable and bright-red, flowing from a thousand wounds along your disgusting body?"

The thumb slipped between his teeth, sliding along his cheek. He bit down.

uu yanked his hand back and punched him. Karkat's head cracked against the table. Before he could do more than let out a slight groan, the ropes tightened around his neck, strangling him until he was gasping for air, bound hands grasping for the slick surface of the table, staring straight up at the ceiling as if it could help. Sometime between when his speech on his sister started and now uu's mask had flipped around from its frown. The grinning side stared at him, wide, eaten-out eyes boring into him.

uu slipped his thumb into Karkat's mouth again, and since Karkat was still struggling to breathe, there wasn't much he could do about it. It grazed the inside of his cheek, slitting it with a twist of a nail. It ran along the length of his tongue, curling around it, pinching it between his fingers. The thumb ran over Karkat's gumline, scraping his teeth, and then went further back into his throat. Karkat gagged as his fingers thrust over and over again until he was choking on his own saliva. When uu pulled out, his fingers were wet and bright red with Karkat's blood. Karkat stared at him, the hand, the blood, everything, everything in hatred. When the ropes were released to a point where he could breathe more easily again he hated it all.

uu punched him. Again. And again. Until Karkat felt like his face was one of Nepeta's bits of raw meat and he was ripe for the pulverizing. His chest, stomach, legs all got beatings too, bruises forming over the wounds he'd already taken and he almost blacked-out as his bitten leg was hit, pain flaring through all his senses. uu's laughter, his taunts, his comments on how beautiful and hideous Karkat was right now. The claws he dug into him, the hot breath of the whispers on his neck that spoke of how revolting he was and exactly how uu was going to rip him to shreds… those were the only things in Karkat's current perception. The hatred flooded his mind. He hated him. He hated him. He hated him.

He was going to kill him.

That was the last thought in his mind before he blacked out.


	3. Part III

**PART III.**

When he awoke, his first sensation was water. Pooling around him, covering his feet. His second, was that he could move again. He could flick his feet against the water, shift his aching arms, turn his neck. As he opened his eyes, he could see why.

Karkat was sitting in a stiff chair against the back of the room, a large door across from him with a frozen clock over it, reading 15:00. A blinking keypad was beside it. Beneath him, water covered the floor in a shallow, ankle-length pool. The walls were smooth steel with wires running down and across them. As his eyes crossed to the other side of the room, he froze and stared.

The other wall was a reflection of the one to the left of him, a mirror reflection, in fact. He could see himself—beaten, bruised, sallow skin and puny—staring back at him. His reddening irises were more evident from this vantage as well. Karkat scowled. He wondered if his kidnapper was behind that piece of glass. Was he watching him? Was he going to enjoy this freak show? He bared his teeth in show.

"You are finally awake."

Karkat turned his head. The voice didn't come from the mirror, but from above his head. Possibly hidden speakers somewhere?

He went to stand and found himself restricted. A thick belt was strapped around his waist. As he tried to budge it again, it rubbed up against his side painfully, a sudden reminder that, oh yeah, he had wounds and he kind of felt like he'd been run over by a drone. For all he knew he could have been during the time he was knocked out. Or something like it.

"Welcome to the second game. Where you're starting off alone, confined and afraid, wondering how in the world you will ever escape."

Karkat shot a skeptical glare in the direction of the voice. And one the mirror's direction too.

"I will explain the rules."

Karkat glanced at the mirror, then surreptitiously tested the belt. It was tight. There wasn't exactly a lock on it; it was just a strip of leather. Which mean that the locking part had to be somewhere. Karkat yanked on it. He noticed that uu had also taken the time to bandage up some of his worst wounds, the ones on his shoulders and that huge one on his leg. They felt slightly better. He guessed uu wasn't going to try and kill him from blood loss then.

"The timer is set for 15 minutes. When the time runs out, so does your chance of escape. The doors will close, the water will pour in, and you see those wires? A heavy electric charge runs through each of them. Hit one and you get a rather big shock. When the doors close, they turn on fully. I'm sure you can imagine what happens then..." The words cut off in a tone of amusement.

Karkat growled. "You know, if you wanted to kill me you could've just gotten it over with. I was right there at your mercy, stretched out and ready for any twisted, physical assault. You could've just knocked me off and gotten it over with. Then you and I wouldn't have to deal with any of this shit and we could live out our happy, annoying lives like we want to. Well, in my case a happy, annoying afterlife, probably filled with fuckers I can't stand, but who really cares. No pain, a bullshit-free future and sipping huge fruity drinks on the back of an exotic, friendly beast."

uu didn't respond, continuing to talk. He either didn't have a mic set up to hear him or he just didn't care.

"But, in your condition. I wouldn't think that you would last long. You'll probably drown before you even open the first door. Like a drowned rat in a pool of its own vomit. Heh. That would be a funny way to die. I'd enjoy watching you curl up on yourself as you choke and splutter and panic. I wonder how big your eyes would get then. Would you finally start to look at me? To treat me the way one should treat someone superior to you? Would your eyes bug out like hers at the final moment, that fear in your eyes when you realize that you're going to die and you get the first taste of your death?"

It was kind of creepy the way uu talked about his sister. Karkat couldn't tell whether their relationship was supposed to be more on the conciliatory or concupiscent side, or maybe it vacillated between, if that was what a sister meant. But it still felt sort of weird. His hands worked at the belt, clawing at it. Small strips came off, but not enough to free him yet. He tugged and it snapped taut back into place, slapping his aching sores. Grimacing, he tried it again.

"I'll look forward to it," uu said in a soft, low voice. Karkat growled again in the direction of the voice. He didn't want to be the source of anyone's black pleasure, unless it was a future kismesis. Or possibly Terezi. Okay he'd be pretty much anything for Terezi. His hands still clawed at the leather strip. A sting was starting to take place in his leg again as some of the cold water soaked his bandage. Damn.

"Let the game begin."

The belt popped open. Before he even questioned it, Karkat was up, backing away from the chair. Water sluggishly poured into the room from the sides, and as he spun around again, he saw that the clock had started ticking down. 14:55, 14:54…

He crossed over to the door to examine it.

The keypad was the most distinct feature. Other than that, it had no hand-holds, no knobs, nothing but a blank metal face. The keypad was lit up with numbers and letters, randomly ordered and mixed up together. And there were a lot of them. How the hell was he supposed to crack this? Was there a clue, anything in his past discussions with uu that would give him a sense of a pattern? Anything about this room that hinted at anything…? He looked around briefly. All he saw was the mirror, the reflected wires and wall, the door, the chair… And the clock, which was still ticking down. 14:13, 14:12. He went to work on the keypad.

Okay, so he wasn't the best hacker in the world—leave that to his best buddy Sollux—but he should've been able to do a little something, right? Too bad his something was apparently pretty shitty, because the door kept blinking red and the water kept pouring in as the clock ticked down further. This wasn't working.

Karkat slammed his fist on the door. Alright, so that was a no-go. Well… if one door doesn't open… maybe you should make a new door. Karkat glanced to his side, to the mirror wall. Where uu was supposedly hiding, sitting and watching him, enjoying his game with a bunch of grubcorn.

Karkat got angry.

Karkat ran at the mirror, slamming himself into it. It cracked slightly under his force. He scrabbled with his nails, ripping away the cracked pieces. On the underside of the mirror he found steel. Nothing but steel. He dug further. He peeked behind it. It was all steel. All the way down. Shit. It wasn't a two-way mirror after all, just a decoy put there to make him think so. Or maybe just to taunt him with his progress and lack thereof as he struggled to get out of this room.

"Aaaaaghhhhh!" He screamed in frustration and pounded a fist against the mirror. It cracked further. He scowled and backed away.

His foot sunk as a floor panel gave way and from the top of the room more water poured in. He quickly jumped off the sinking platform. The water stopped gushing, resuming its normal pace. Shit, not doing that again.

Karkat carefully stepped away from the mirrored wall, careful to avoid any trick floor panels again. Freaking mother grub's teats! How was he supposed to get out of here then? The door was the only way, right? So there had to be something he was missing. He surveyed the room once more. His eyes scaled the walls of the cage, looking at the pattern of the criss-crossing wires and then further up, examining the corners and the ceiling. Nope, no glimmers of hidden code, no secret keys dangling from the ceiling in a way that said ha ha that keypad was just a red herring and here's an easier way out. He'd have to crack it.

As Karkat made his way over to the door again, wading through water that was now up to his knees, he noticed a glimmer he hadn't before. He paused, bending down. Vaguely luminescent numbers shined on the floor beneath the door. The numbers to the keypad!

_ 2_

He input them in the keypad. It buzzed and blinked red. The door didn't unlock. He tried again. Still didn't work. … Karkat rolled up his sleeves.

10:05, 10:04… Karkat rearranged them in as many combinations as he could think of. But none of them worked. Course, it couldn't be that easy. He couldn't just find a series of numbers and think that it would automatically work for the keypad. The water was just past his waist-level now. He paused to think.

The numbers to the keypad were here. Nothing behind him except that chair he'd been locked into. One wall was padded wires and metal, the other wall was a mirror… His brain started to wander. What if he didn't get out of here? He never met Terezi for that next-day date he'd promised. She must be worried right? What if he never saw her again? What if he never saw anyone again? Wait, no this wasn't time to panic. Back to the task at hand. Okay… what wasn't he thinking of? What was… then he realized it. The trick floor panel. Maybe it wasn't just to trick him into drowning faster… maybe it actually served a purpose?

Karkat looked over to the right side of the room and frowned. He waded back over to the deceptive mirror, staring at the hole of blank metal he'd created. Now it was somewhere around here….

His foot found it before his brain could figure out the exact location, and he sunk, catching himself before he fell over entirely. Water poured in like before. Karkat turned around and around, looking for something, any special clue.

On the face of the door, luminescent numbers shined. They'd shifted from the floor, it seemed, to the face of the door, and hovered there for him to see. As he stepped off, the numbers slid back into place. Ah, so that was the game. That's how he would get the correct code.

He hopped back on, squinting to see the numbers as they rose again. _3…5…8…6…_

As he hopped off, they slid back into place with the others. Now to find more panels.

6:57, 6:56… He swam through the water now, since it was up to his shoulders and hopped down onto the floor tiles. Most of them stayed in place. Two of them moved. One revealed a line lower than the first had been: _0… 1…_ The second revealed a line almost to the bottom of the door that he had to dunk his face into the water to see the blurry outline of. But he thought he made out the rest of the numbers. _1… 5… 9… 2…_ That finished out the set of 10.

He memorized the last of the sequence in his head and kicked off to the door again. The water was officially over his head and the clock was ticking down to 3:30. But he got it now. He put in the numbers in their new series and waited for the light. But the light that emerged came out just as red as before and the underwater beep sounded the same. Karkat beat on the door, then beat on the keypad. No. No no no no no. This was supposed to work. Maybe he just put it in wrong. He tried again. The red light still beeped.

He surfaced for air. He screamed. He screamed and shouted and thrashed and kicked against the keypad with his good leg, as if breaking it would help him escape. He was going to die in here. This was his end. This was going to be his watery tomb and he was going to be killed by that sicko motherfucker who'd kidnapped him here… He had to say he was disappointed. He thought he'd had a chance of getting out of here. Of maybe winning the game or slipping away or killing that bastard once and for all… And coming out of here with an absolutely insane story to tell. Seeing his friends again. Gamzee. Sollux. Nepeta. Terezi… And after this experience if anyone thought a possible threat of culling from the mandatory conscription would stop him they were wrong. He would fight and he could fight and he'd fight through anything that came at him.

But it would end like this after all. Ha. Great. His life had always been one with the crappiest humor.

Karkat floated, watching the clock as he awaited the end. 2:01, 2:00, 1:59… The final countdown… He was almost to the top of the cage. The water had filled up pretty quickly. Soon there wouldn't be any air to breathe left. He turned his head, to glance at the floating luminescence below him, then again to the mirror to his right. The mirror. That stupid mirror that constantly reflected his ineptitude back at him. Where he could stare at the last and pathetic eyes that he would see for that lifetime. That were his own. His stupid reflection.

…A reflection. Karkat's eyes widened. Fuck, why didn't he realize that before? It was a reflection. That's why there were letters on the keypad along with numbers… The code was a reflection. 3 was an E. 5… could be a 2? 6 was a d? Shit. It could totally. And it made sense.

Karkat glanced at the clock in front of him. 1:28, 1:27… If he tried, he could rearrange the code and put it in before the timer went off. He could get out of here. He almost dove under the water again, before another thought stopped him. But… wait, even if he escaped, there'd just be another trap. Probably a cage or something to hold him while uu had his way with him again. Another fake win only for the gain of his captor. He almost didn't want to give it to him. But if he stayed here, he'd only drown- his head was already almost fully underwater and he was floating at the top of the cage; he'd only have a few breaths of air left- or he'd get electrocuted when the clock stopped.

Everything was lose-lose in this fucking game, wasn't it?

A last glint caught his eye. This time not luminescent numbers, but metal in the corner of the top of the cage. The hidden speaker. And was that a tiny camera? Where there's a camera… there's a hole that leads to somewhere else. And where there's a hole… There's a loophole. Maybe he had one more option.

Karkat smashed the camera and mic with his hand, yanking on them with another. They came free, wires streaming through behind them. And a hole. He yanked more, making the hole wider as more wires came through. Scratching and pounding at it with a fist. Breaking the metal open. Wider and wider. Quickly quickly. Water sloshed into the hole, allowing him a little bit of breathing room as the water nearly filled the cage. He couldn't even see the clock anymore but he knew it was ticking towards his doom. He heart was beating along with it as the internal clock in his head screamed DANGER DANGER DANGER and any source of air was entirely depleted.

Karkat scraped and clawed and ripped until he created a hole just big enough for him to squeeze through if he contorted and didn't mind scraping the skin off his sides as he did so. He didn't care.

He pushed himself through the hole, which led to a ventilation system instead of the long drop he'd imagined. The space on the other side of the hole was a giant box, quickly filling with water from the cage as well. Karkat pulled himself up and out of the box, into the main vent system above. Mercifully water-free. Apparently just in time. A loud buzz sounded from behind him and the water churned with what he could only assume was electric current. He crawled away as quickly as he could.

As he crawled, a thought started to finally surface. And a kind of happy excitement. He'd done it. He finally did it.

He was free.


	4. Part IV

**PART IV.**

Karkat crawled through the ventilation ducts. His size had always been a matter of self-censure for him and a butt of many jokes among his associates, but for once in his 8-sweep-old life he was grateful for it, because it made crawling through this maze of layered metal that much easier. They were narrow and turned at odd moments, forcing him to contort himself in interesting ways to get through. And a few times he passed places that shined with light from below, obvious holds on those panels where trap doors were. Karkat assumed that maybe they were placed there to move things in and out, though he couldn't imagine much big stuff getting through these vents.

He moved on, trying to find a larger source of light or anything that might indicate an exit, but he saw nothing. As he passed the lit spaces, he peered in. They were rooms. One was a weird cellar with spiderweb-like lights. Karkat didn't think he wanted to know what those were for. Another was a room he'd already been in, the room with the 60 foot drop straight down to the dead trucklebeasts. He felt sort of remorseful about that. He hadn't liked the things obviously since they'd wanted his cranial plate served on a large, savory platter and had fucked him over in the process, but he hadn't exactly wanted them to die. And it was sort of his fault, technically. One of the trucklebeasts stirred below. Oh yeah, that one hadn't totally gone and offed itself. Good then. He shut the trap door and crawled forward.

Karkat moved on until he found a promising door. He hadn't been able to find an actual exit yet, but through this door… there were monitors… and screens… and controls. It looked like… the main control room?

Karkat flipped the top of the trap door up a bit more, peering further in. He didn't see any signs of uu. Maybe he was out searching for him. Or maybe he thought he was really dead and was gloating at the thought of having finally "bested" him and won the game in whatever dimension that organ uu called a thinkpan was seated on.

Karkat dropped in.

He rolled and sat up, wincing as his leg stung with pain and the soreness in his arms and sides, but nothing he couldn't handle. At this point everything was pain. He stood up, leaning on a chair for balance. He limped over to the room's door, locking it. Then he turned around, giving the room a better look-over.

There were monitors spread throughout the room, as he'd seen before, scenes from the various rooms on them. The rooms he'd just passed. The room that had totally filled with water and apparently electric shocks, since the camera shorted out about five seconds after his eyes flicked to it. The room uu tortured him in. A hallway. A few other rooms he hadn't seen before.

He didn't see an exit on screen, but that didn't destroy his hope. There had to be one somewhere that uu would use after this entire "game" was over. Karkat just had to find it, open it, and then maybe lock the psychotic bastard up inside it forever afterwards. Bam. Problem solved.

Now where the heck would that be…

His fingers roamed over the keypad, trying buttons to see if new rooms or secret passageways would pop up or open. Clicks and whirrs sounded in the control room as doors moved. On the screen he could see the torture room pop open as its door unlocked. The one to the trucklebeast vault opened as well. Karkat hurriedly re-closed that one before the newly re-innervated trucklebeast stumbled its way out. And the hallway lightened and darkened. The PA system turned on and off again. A trap dropped from a vault he hadn't been aware of when crawling through the vents, a series of sharp knives dropping to the floor of an empty room on screen. Karkat was glad he wasn't in that room right now.

But nothing happened that involved an obvious exit opening or secret passageway unveiling itself.

Karkat scowled, leaning back from the monitors.

A slight scrape made him aware of a presence. Shit.

The one thing that hadn't crossed his mind, which really should have been as obvious as Alternia's hideously bright sun during the day, was the notable lack of anyone on screen. Anyone, including him. This room was the only one not on screen.

He spun and ducked just as the shot rang into the place where his head used to be. Karkat ripped a bunch of wires out from the terminal beside him, lunging from his crouch to charge his kidnapper.

His momentum managed to slam the guy into the floor, sending a few angry shots ricocheting towards the ceiling and bouncing off the walls, then a wave of Karkat's arm sent the gun flying out behind them. He reached up and grabbed uu's throat, encircling it with the wires and squeezing with every ounce of strength left. It felt like he was trying to choke a bag of bricks. What the hell kind of muscle did this guy have anyway?

uu kneed him in the gut and the pain shot through to his already injured side, forcing his grip to slip. uu pried his hands off and managed to get a leg under him, flipping them around. This time it was Karkat who fell to the ground as uu slipped on top.

A fight that could only be called a brawl broke out, punches and kicks and foulplay scratches and horn pulling. Karkat's teeth tore into uu's neck as the other guy elbowed him off. His fingers slashed the man's jaw, clawing his face, pummeling his mask. He was going to be the victor of this match, no matter what it took. He was already getting the upper hand in the fight. This was his last stand. He could win this. He could beat this thing… this person, whoever uu was. And he would escape and go home. As they grappled further and uu tried to knock his hands away, the mask finally slid askew. Karkat froze.

…Underneath was… green. A permanently grinning jaw, no lips. Where the nose should've been there was a hole. A black hole. Like a skull.

uu shoved him, flinging him to a corner of the room where he crashed into the wall and lay there.

As uu stood up, walking over, Karkat could finally see the wounds he'd inflicted, the bite mark he'd torn in uu's neck. They all bled a bright, mutant candy-blooded red.

"What… are you?"

uu snarled in response, bending to pick up his rifle again. He put it to Karkat's skull.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Karkat was dropped on the table from before and bound thoroughly. Then he was beaten. His chest, his abdomen, his back, his legs… His wounds were ripped open, re-bandaged and opened again. His head was pounded over and over again until he couldn't think. His vision spun, throbbing came from everywhere, everything was bright red pain. He was covered in wet sticky blood and dried blood, his bones felt broken. He howled. On and on, in agony. But no one was there to hear him except his torturer. No one would ever hear him. He was trapped there. Alone. With this maniacal beast alien and no one would ever know. He realized that now.

The butt of the gun gave him another painful bruise. He cried.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Karkat didn't know how long it lasted, but it felt like it went on for days or maybe weeks, never-ending. Then uu bandaged him, cleaned him up, eventually applied some salve to his leg (which had gotten so badly infected it felt like a hot, throbbing sack of meat, all sharp pain and malodorous flesh) and left him.

uu tossed food at him every now and then, forced him to eat and drink. Beat him. And left him there again.

Karkat had never wanted to murder someone so badly in his life. It was all he thought about. Well, the first thought was death. Merciful death would have been a relief in light of his pain and wounds. And after that was murder. He just wanted to take someone down with him and that someone would be the hideous fucking monster that had him captured there. That was his fantasy.

xXxXxXxXxXx

"Why are you doing this? You have the same unnatural blood as me. Shouldn't you be torturing yourself instead?"

"Ha ha ha. You stupid troll. I don't care about any of that blood stuff."

"That's why you brought me here, you painfully amnesiac slimeface. That's why I'm playing these games. Because I'm a worthless candy-blooded mutant piece of shit."

uu laughed again. It was louder and more high-pitched than the first one. It rang through Karkat's throbbing head weirdly. "No. I did it because it was _fun_. I just used your hemospectrum ideomosmology against you because it was the thing you care about most. It was so funny the way you scurried around trying to protect it! I wanted to squish you. Like a little bug, caught in my big web of horrors. I personally don't give a dying furry mammal's ass about blood hierarchy or social status. Where I'm from that doesn't even exist. I'm alone. Mercifully alone, by myself, on my planet, ruled by me. No bitches. No bros. No royal head leaders- well, other than me- to deal with. The only other person who was there as a thorn in my side is gone, literally ripped out and siphoned from my body like the biological misshapen disease she was and now I'm the only one left. I'm the big bad. It is me!"

Karkat stared at him. "Wow. Never thought I'd be speechless but I'm seriously shocked right now that I found someone even more pathetic than me."

"Hahaha. Pathetic! Yes, you are. Now you're starting to see yourself as I've seen you all along. A pathetic little boy. Crawling along in the mud, professing himself as leader when he's really nothing but an Alternian slug. I thought maybe you'd be a little more entertaining though."

"You're pathetic. You wouldn't survive a day in Alternia."

"I will destroy Alternia. And I'll do it one by one. Taking each and every one of your little 'mates' along with me."

"You won't make it to the gates. You're nothing but an incredulous little child. When I stripped off your mask you had a breakdown."

"I wasn't the one who cowered in fear of my face."

"Your face is nothing to be afraid of. It's just as ugly and predictable as the rest of you."

uu raked his claws against Karkat's face. Karkat caught one finger between his teeth and bit, hard. uu howled and choked Karkat's neck with the other hand, until Karkat was forced to let go. The taste of blood filled his mouth and crimson stained uu's hand. Karkat wasn't certain if it was his blood or the alien's. He laughed, long and hard, staring at uu, trying to bear a hole at the eyes staring at him beneath the mask. He growled softly. "When I die in this place, I'm taking you with me, you maggot-filled speck of troll dust. You won't get the chance to destroy Alternia or touch any more of my friends. That's a promise."

"Heh. When you die it'll be a cold and lonely one. That's my promise."

uu slunk out of the room. He cut off the lights and slammed the door closed, leaving Karkat in pitch blackness once more.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Karkat was in blackness for some time. He wasn't certain how long. No food, nothing to drink. Just him, the darkness and his thoughts.

He began to dream. Or maybe it was hallucinate. He couldn't tell whether he was asleep or awake. He couldn't tell how much time had passed.

Everything hurt. His head was a constant throbbing. Everything below his right knee felt like it was going to fall off. He filled his mind with thoughts of killing that guy.

When light appeared again he recoiled from it like a denizen of the deepest underground cave, and it was only until uu came closer that Karkat realized there was a platter of food in his hands. Karkat looked away.

"I'm going to offer you a choice. The final game. If you win, you're free. If you lose, well, it'll be the same fate that you're gonna end up here anyway, right?"

"Then why should I play? I'm already half-rotted away. Just finish me off."

"You were the one who gave the big, bad words of dying and "taking me along with you". I'm giving you a choice here, you stupid creature. Are you that much of a coward?"

"I die either way. Why do you want another game so bad?"

"I only get out of this shithole when you die. You could at least make it entertaining."

"Guess I'll just stay here. No use in entertaining pieces of shit like you."

uu snarled at him. Then he grinned. "Maybe I didn't mention all of the details. You see, in this game, there's a shitty little twist. Oooh I love those. They're just so… good and… shitty. Well. In the final game. Hehe. I'll be playing too."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Karkat sat in a room bolted to a chair, on the edge of a circular platform fixed to the floor. Across from him sat uu, similarly bolted to an identical chair. To their right was an elevator with an up button, leading to the exit and beyond. To their left, the door they emerged from, leading back into the series of games. And beneath them were two trap doors that would activate if one of them lost, dropping them into 40 feet of pitch blackness below. In front of them was the game that would decide it all, perched on a simple table between them. A game of chess.

His wounds had been patched up and the infection in his leg treated. It still was painful but not as raw-hot and throbbing as it had been before. His fever was gone. He could think again. uu had taken off the mask that he'd been wearing the entire time, allowing his skull-like green face to show openly. His teeth spread into a grin, even wider and pointier than Karkat's was.

"Shall we begin?"

xXxXxXxXxXx

Their bolted arm cuffs had wires beneath them that extended when it was their turn to make a move, long enough to reach the chess board, and as soon as they signaled the move was over, retracted to bind them to the chair again.

uu made the first move. It took a while to really take off, made even more agonizingly slow and painstaking by the fact that Karkat was very aware that this could be his last chance. The last thing he ever did in life, staked on the results of a ridiculously juvenile board game. He analyzed every move harder than he'd analyzed anything in his life, trying to map out an exact game plan for a winning strategy, but since he only knew the bare fundamentals of this game, he really had no way of doing it. So instead he just tried to keep uu on his toes as much as possible, and wipe that stupid smug grin off his face.

"When I win, I'm finally going to—" Karkat started, but uu cut him off.

"Hmpf. You're not going to win. Look at this miserable effort you call playing. So vile and absolutely disturbing it makes my blood stir. In terrible ways. Check."

"That "check" was just as pathetic as you. Try again, you hideous gangrene cranial plate." Karkat moved his piece away and slammed it down on the board. He hit the buzzer and his arm was yanked back.

"Getting angry? Because "check". Again."

"I'm not getting angry. What you're mistaking as anger is nothing more than pure justifiable righteous discontentment. Believe me if I were actually angry and you were worth the time and effort it would take to get my version of absolutely fuschia-colored royally-pissed-off then you would know."

"Your righteous discontentamobable is just another way of denial. You're afraid and you're not willing to show it. You can tell me, you know. It's only us here. And it'll only be us, until the end. When you either survive or… what am I saying that's not even a remote possibility. You won't. And when you finally lose, I'll laugh at your stunned, wide-eyed grey little face as you fall under. And when I meet your friends, I'll watch the same expression on theirs. Just as promised. I wonder if their eyes will budge out of their head. I really love it when I see that. CHECK."

Karkat couldn't help it. He growled. He calmed himself before he was the one riled up instead of uu. Then his attempts to unsettle him into a mistake would backfire. "I don't think so, you piece of alien cabbage. You're not fit to wipe the soot underneath their lowest blooded shoe." Karkat swooped uu's piece off the board and with a triumphant click, placed his piece on the square. uu scowled. "Your move."

"Oh, but haven't I? You're the lowest of the low and I've been dealing with your filth since you got here."

"Is that really your best insult?"

"Shut up. Your move. Before I behead your queen without even taking her piece yet. Haha. Hahahaha. Hahaha—"

"Aaaaaghhhhh stop with that incessant laughter I can't deal with that grating monotonic syllable anymore!" Karkat threw down a piece down the board. Luckily it landed where he wanted it to.

"You can't take my laughter? Allow me to laugh you off the face of this room then!" uu started to laugh once more.

Karkat studied the board. Don't get pissed off. Don't get pissed off. Do not get royally pissed off here, Karkat. Your life and the life of your friends is relying on it. You can win this thing. Just do it. Karkat tossed out another insult as he moved another piece. There we go. Back on track. He could do this.

Further insults were thrown, casual snide remarks, uu's stupid laughter, Karkat's cooling off the temper that would threaten to boil up. And finally, he saw it. uu's mistake. One piece that he could've moved in the opposite direction that would've given him a chance. And because of it, it gave Karkat the chance instead. His eyes met uu's at the same time and it was clear that the other guy knew. And he was pissed.

Karkat casually smiled… and moved his piece. uu kept playing. Painstakingly. Devotedly. He snarled at Karkat the entire time. The sequence was quick. Karkat hovered over the last piece before moving it into its final checkmate position.

"What's your real name anyway?"

uu glared.

"Hey, I beat you fairly. Can't I know before you fall into a pit of bug-eyed slimy crawlies or whatever you have beneath us, so I can say a last and proper farewell?"

"You didn't beat me fairly. You probably used some sort of low troll-blooded trick, some swinehearted deceit that even I unfortunately couldn't process in time enough to make it count. And everything else was luck. Pure folly."

"Doesn't matter now does it? You're going to face the same end that you swore to me I'd be facing this entire time. Trust me I'm practically waiting on the edge of my seat in excitement. Actually, no, pretty literally too."

uu snarled. "…Caliborn, is what you can call me."

"Caliborn… that's a really awful name."

"It's a great name. Much better than any of the stupid six-lettered troll ones you absolutely insist on having. A regal name. Fit for a King. Or a Lord." uu tried to lunge at him but naturally, was held back by the bonds on his chair. He struggled and growled.

"Can you feel the desperation? The aching need to survive and escape? It's the same thing you would've inflicted on my friends if you were allowed the chance. And the same reason why I'm not giving you one."

uu snarled and tried to lunge again, but he couldn't budge because of his chair. "You're going to suffer just as badly as me. Watch out, little boy. Heh."

Karkat smiled. "Sweet dreams, Caliborn." He put his chess piece down. The buzzer RANG out. Checkmate.

The floor beneath uu sprang open and the alien was dropped into the deep, dark abyss down below. Screams ripped through the air as uu fell. The floor panel closed over him. A POP as Karkat's bonds were loosed. He stood up rather shakily, staring at the place where uu used to be, the empty chair, the nearly cleared chessboard. The chess board that he won on. The chess game that he won his freedom by.

He could literally cry he was so happy. Too bad that leader trolls didn't do that. He had more things to worry about. Like escaping.

The door that they'd come through popped open, leading back to the game rooms and the control room. Karkat sneered at it. Yeah, not this time. He headed in the opposite direction, towards the set of elevator doors on his right. He pressed the button.

The elevator slid open, revealing the very normal inside of an elevator, almost surreal compared to the weird rooms he'd been locked up in here. Karkat stepped inside and pressed the only button, an up arrow. The doors closed.

As he rose, cheery elevator music played. Not exactly the best music taste, but he found himself humming along with the tune. Light peered into the elevator from the top. Turns out the ceiling wasn't a blank panel like he'd assumed. It was actually a skylight. A hint of sunlight peered through the ceiling. He could actually see the sun. And though usually sunlight would send a smart troll running for cover, this time he was actually embracing it. Maybe he'd tell Kanaya about this later. She'd probably give him a patient look that silently said that he shouldn't have been paranoid of the sun in the first place, but all trolls weren't as adept to handle it as those of her blood. He'd have to tell her how wonderful it felt, for once. To see light of any kind. It was amazing.

The elevator stopped. Karkat frowned. He wasn't quite at the top yet, at least not as far as he could tell. He pressed the up arrow again.

Suddenly sprinkler heads sprung out from the ceiling. Karkat crouched on instinct, then stared at them. What…

A voice came through the speakers as the cheesy elevator music cut off. Laughter. Caliborn. "HA HA HA HA HA. Hello. If you're hearing this recording now then… I suppose there's some minuscule chance that you've actually beaten me at the last game, which is impossible since I'm basically the master of chess, but maybe there was some sort of mishap. If you're hearing this though, that means that you've won. And you've tried to escape. But Karkat… haven't you learned? You can't escape my games by choosing the easy way out. You need to play them through. All the way through. There were two options for escape, Karkat. And you…. you have just chosen the wrong one."

The sprinklers turned on. As the liquid hit his skin Karkat screamed, trying to fan off the burning liquid as more hit his hands, his shoulders, his back, his face. He curled into a ball in the corner but it kept coming. More and more. He was on fire. He was melting. Everything was agonizing. Everything in his body screamed in pain, even more pain than he'd thought possible to feel anymore, with the torturous sessions that uu had exacted from him. But nothing had been as painful as this. Nothing. And it wouldn't stop.

He barely felt the shift as the elevator started to move again, this time downwards. Back towards the games. It increased in speed.

His screams drowned out the rest of uu's recording and he rolled around on the floor, trying to escape from the liquid fire that was eating him alive, crawling through his muscles, his nerves, his bones. The elevator picked up speed as it dropped past the point he'd entered at, falling into its own abyss.

"Thanks for playing. It has been rather… entertaining, to say the least."

His howls sounded until the elevator met the bottom of the chute and smashed him against the ceiling and the walls, crushing out any further screaming he might do forever more.


End file.
